Original 4 inch vs. Billet Poll

[Ronbo]

I've often thought while working on this billet chassis how much easier it was to remove weight from the car than it was to remove weight from my middle!

That's a tough one, time on the computer to take more pounds off, however it has the reverse effect on the programmer.

Here's a tip: keep all snacks out of reach of the desk, preferrably on the opposite end of the building.

Personally, I judge how tough a project was by how many pots of coffee and packs of smokes it takes to complete it...

[fostereast]

For David K.

Out of curiosity, do you strain guage any of your designs and stress them in a way that let's you compare actual results to your FEA results. It would be fun to see pictures of copper wire and strain guages all over one of your test-bed cars.

I suspect that as you push the envelope into more and more billet items with weight reduction as a key goal that there are certainly a few parts or connections that would be fun and valuable to test this way.

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by fostereast

For David K.

Out of curiosity, do you strain guage any of your designs and stress them in a way that let's you compare actual results to your FEA results. It would be fun to see pictures of copper wire and strain guages all over one of your test-bed cars.

I suspect that as you push the envelope into more and more billet items with weight reduction as a key goal that there are certainly a few parts or connections that would be fun and valuable to test this way.

Now, that would be cool to see all those wires. As for that extensive of testing, no, the testing alone would be hundreds of thousands of dollars. But, we are doing the next best thing. This Thursday (hopefully!) we will be actually testing the car at the track with miles and miles and miles of hard driving. We will then take the car apart and check everything out to make sure FEA does correspond to real life.

As for testing, we do have a wall full of parts that are tested to failure. Some ideas are surprisingly good--others need more time on the drawing board. As for margin of safety, there is a reason we call Thomas "Baja Man."

David

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by Ronbo

That's a tough one, time on the computer to take more pounds off, however it has the reverse effect on the programmer.

Here's a tip: keep all snacks out of reach of the desk, preferrably on the opposite end of the building.

Personally, I judge how tough a project was by how many pots of coffee and packs of smokes it takes to complete it...

Good thing I don't smoke or I'd owe stock in Marlboro by now!

David